Student misidentified as suspect in stabbing incident

A UWG student was stabbed at Carrollton Crossing Apartment Complex on Wednesday, April 6. According to Brandon Podaras, an investigator with the Carrollton Police Department, the weapon was a folding blade pocket knife. The suspect was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. It is not confirmed if the suspect is a student at UWG.

After being treated at Tanner Medical Center for four stab wounds, the victim was released from the hospital that day.

“They were non-life threatening injuries,” said Podaras. “There’s a laceration of the right hand, a puncture wound to the upper left arm, a puncture wound to the top of the head and a puncture wound to the upper lip.”

Before the stabbing occurred, the victim and her roommates argued over burned food in the apartment. The suspect intervened to defend her sister and the argument eventually turned into a fistfight, which then progressed into a stabbing. The suspect ended up with scrapes from the fight.

UWG Police sent an e-mail alert to students, stating the suspect was a former UWG student, but the student corrected the Carrollton Police’s mistake.

“I just know that she’s contacted the Carrollton Police, and they were able to move her from being a suspect to a witness,” said UWG Chief of Police Thomas Mackel.

It is still unclear as to how this student was named the suspect. Podaras shared the Carrollton Police’s perspective of how the mix-up might have occurred.

“We don’t release sensitive information, especially with active cases,” said Podaras. “I know that there was a couple of campus police officers that were on the scene assisting the arriving Carrollton Police officers. Maybe some of that information just got confused along the way and ultimately to some sort of policy that they have to send an e-mail out.”

From the UWG Police’s view point, they only reported what was communicated to them from the Carrollton Police.

“That was the name the city had given us as far as who the suspect was, so that was what was transmitted to me,” said Mackel. “That’s how it ended up on the Wolf Alert.”

Lastly, Mackel said the misidentified student also contacted the UWG Police to ask them to release a statement to clear her name. Students received an e-mail alert about this as well.

“When you’ve got somebody stabbed and everything like that, things go very quickly,” Mackel said. “Somebody may have given the wrong name. Who knows? At least we were able to get it cleared up as quickly as possible.”